A few weeks ago I spoke to a frustrated client. He was en route to his office to do “yet another quote”. He complained about the time needed to prepare quotes after each email enquiry.
He did not keep track of his conversion rate. He felt that it was one in every five proposals sent. He never called the prospect first. He felt that to be a waste of time. He issued ten proposals each month. Each took about 30 minutes to prepare.
His gut feel, after 20 years in that business, was that this one would not end in a sale. Yet he felt it was not worth a five minute phone call to clarify that.
He was about to do what he always did: Invest 30 minutes to assemble a proposal which would not win this race. That doesn’t make sense.
How much more powerful to phone now, the moment you get the first request, than to email later? Better to know that upfront than to waste 30 minutes assembling your best email effort. And then wondering for weeks when you should chase it.
This is even more true for new prospects.
But that phone call does something else. It embeds you as a high service supplier. You’ve shown your service level. Your rivals will write about theirs.
The whole point of your business is to convert prospects into sales to create income. This is the most effective way to do exactly that.
I have 600,000 sales enquiries backing this suggestion.
- Those folk who followed the “phone” approach prospered.
- Those who didn’t, are still wasting their time on vain proposals.
You will find more here.